


Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Keybearer's Life For Me

by raisedbymoogles



Category: Final Fantasy VII, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Chance Meetings, Gen, Messing Around, piratical talk, ruined world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-14 10:59:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3408071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raisedbymoogles/pseuds/raisedbymoogles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Our heroes pick up another stray. This one's a bit more 'stray' than most.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Keybearer's Life For Me

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Are You Game? 2008 on Insanejournal.

All that was left of this ruined world was a mile-long stretch of beach, crooked and thin, the ocean that embraced it flowing endlessly out of formless void. In this colorless fragment of shoreline they were incongruous, bright shards of color wandering the sand looking for some sign of life.

Here, even Sora felt a cautious hush steal over him as the cold surf washed over his boots. He was on point, Riku and Kairi a second's dash behind, but though he strove to keep his mind on the terrain he couldn't quit looking back at them, as if they'd vanish if he didn't keep an eye on them. Kairi gave him an encouraging smile, and Riku swung his blade deceptively-casual from his shoulder - ready to fight, if he had to. Sora turned back and tried to feel reassured.

While thin, the world-fragment was long, and so it was some time before they saw the ships. Sora already had his Keyblade out when the dark, ragged shapes loomed out of the darkness, but when Riku shouted a warning he leaped forward to meet an attack that never came. The shadows, though intimidating, didn't move, and after a moment Sora let out a whoosh of breath.

"Geez, Riku, fake a guy out."

"Made you look," Riku retorted, but there was strain in his voice, and Kairi said nothing.

They approached the shadows, pounding out a slow jog through the silt and surf. At some point they resolved themselves into the solid, recognizable shapes of ships: wrecks, rather, two weather-battered husks run aground and abandoned. Sora slowed, eyeing the shadows spilling from the yawning hole in the nearest ship's side as if waiting for it to spew forth a battalion of Heartless, and didn't resume his pace until Kairi and Riku were abreast with him. An ambush he could handle; being separated from his friends, less so.

"Spooky," Kairi said softly, close against his shoulder. "I wonder what happened to them."

"I wonder whose they were," Riku murmured, just as cautious. "Forgotten ships like this should have faded into the darkness."

"Well," Sora mused, "maybe there's treasure."

"Huh?" His friends blinked at him in unison.

"Something's holding it here, right? Come on!" He stepped forward, put a hand out to steady himself against the broken hull.

_"Stand fast, ye scurvy dogs, or ye'll be walkin' the plank!"_

Sora leaped back, Keyblade springing to life in his hands as Riku and Kairi formed up around him. "Who's there!"

"Try lookin' _up,_ landlubbers!"

Sora looked up. Aboard the grounded ship, leaning over the guardrail to grin at them was a muscular man with wild spikes of hair that put him in mind of Cloud. His sword, what Sora could see of it, also reminded him of Cloud: a tall and heavy weapon strapped to the man's back. "Who are you?" Sora demanded, relaxing a little despite himself. "Are you one of Cloud's friends?"

The question seemed to unbalance the stranger; he recovered quickly, though, and favored them with a rakish grin. "I be only a humble sailor," he drawled, and now that he listened Sora was almost sure the pirate-speech was entirely affected. "Cap'n Zack Fair's the name. A free soul on the seas of darkness!"

"Wonder if he knows a certain other pirate captain," Riku muttered sidelong. Sora glanced back at him, then at Kairi. She was studying Zack with open curiosity, but when Sora looked at her she caught his eye and giggled.

That settled it, as far as he was concerned. "Avast, me hearty!" he shouted, affecting a pirate accent of his own. "I be the dread pirate Sora, and this be my mate Riku, and me other mate Kairi. We're also sailors in these strange waters!"

"Sora," Riku groaned over Kairi's outright laugh. "You dork."

"When in Atlantica," Sora shrugged, grinning irrepressably. "Ahoy, Cap'n! Permission to come aboard?"

Zack blinked at him, seeming to see his wreck of a ship for the first time. "Aye, laddy," he drawled, "t'would be an honor, but as ye can see, me ship is less than seaworthy." He waved a hand at the cracked-open hull. "I've been marooned on this dank isle for days too long to count, and not a gentlemanly sea turtle in sight."

"Why don't you come on our ship instead?" Kairi offered.

Riku spluttered, but no one was more surprised than Zack himself. "Really?" he exclaimed, his face brightening. "I mean, uh - a shiny proposal, lass! Arrrr!"

"You could at least come to Radiant Garden with us," Kairi continued, nudging Riku's arm when he continued to make incoherent protest. "Maybe you'll meet someone you know there."

For the second time, Zack faltered only for a moment before grinning brightly enough to light the empty sky. Tossing his hair back, the man vaulted the guardrail and dropped ten feet to the ground, taking the landing easily as a cat. "Lead on," he said in his normal voice, then, as an afterthought, "Arr!"

"Arrr!" Sora crowed proudly, and Kairi joined in. Riku had to be encouraged via two sharp elbows in his gut before he'd offer a weak "Arr."

Zack laughed again, clapping a hand warmly on Sora's shoulder. "Thanks, kid. Now I can finally get moving again." As he spoke, his body began to fade into gray translucence like watercolor. Kairi cried out in alarm, but Zack kept smiling until he faded completely, leaving a set of dog tags on a chain in Sora's hand.

"Fair," Sora read softly. "Lieutenant. Shinra Military Operations."

"A ghost?" Riku asked.

Sora slung the chain over his neck. "Nah. He's still with us, even if you can't see him. Friends are like that." He grinned, inviting Riku and Kairi both to share in his insight.

Kairi laughed and Riku rolled his eyes. "You are the biggest dork in the universe," he accused, ruffling through the shorter boy's hair.

Sora grinned crookedly. "Arrrr, hoist the jolly roger, ye bilge rats! And batten down the hatches!" He ducked away from Riku's swipe and ran back up the beach, whooping with joy. Behind, he could hear Riku and Kairi chasing after him while Zack's dog tags bounced against his chest.


End file.
